Both teams went into this game playing some of their 'fringe' players. Latics brought in 7 players (Pollitt, Boyce, Granqvist, Olembe, Koumas, Skoko and Sibierski) from their magnificent draw at Liverpool on Wednesday; Sunderland changed four from their 1-0 loss to Blackburn.

The first goal came after 19 minutes when Josip Skoko fired in a great cross which evaded everybody but the unmarked Scharner, who duly obliged by heading it in to the back of the net.

Four minutes earlier Ryan Taylor limped off with a knee injury, to be replaced by David Cotterill and Julius Aghahowa came on for Antoine Sibierski due to a knock on his ankle just before the break. Both players will need to have scans to see if there is any serious damage.

Ten minutes after the break Manchester United bad boy Jonathan Evens attempted a back pass to his keeper, only for it to be woefully short.

Julius Aghahowa put pressure on Paul McShane and his attempted clearance was always going to be directed in the back of the net. Here we saw the back flips that we want to see more of.

The game was sealed up as Aghahowa again terrorised the Black Cats defence, firing across goal to give Cotterill an easy goal.

Latics didn't have all their own way, with Roy O'Donovan clipping the crossbar. Shots from Kieran Richardson and Andy Cole proved too easy for Pollitt to deal with.

Latics had the final say as Craig Gordon just managed to deflect a Michael Brown shot on to the post.

Sunderland were easily dispatched with our second 3-0 thrashing of them this season, let's hope our next league match is as convincing.

Wigan now look to Monday to find out who they'll meet in the Fourth Round on the weekend of the 26th-27th of January.

Report by Jason Taylor (www.cockneylatic.co.uk)